Wendy B. Jacobs

Biography

Wendy B. Jacobs is a Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School and Director of the Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic.  Ms. Jacobs received her J.D. with honors in 1981 from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.  After law school, Ms. Jacobs first worked as an appellate lawyer and special litigator for the U.S. Department of Justice in its Environment Division in Washington, D.C. She then did a brief stint with a law firm in Seattle working on First Amendment and commercial litigation, followed by 18 years as a partner in the Boston law firm Foley Hoag LLP, where she worked almost exclusively on environmental matters, involving myriad environmental laws, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and a host of interesting private sector clients.  Her work has covered the gamut of compliance counseling, handling of complex permit applications and their related hearings and appeals, preparation of comments on federal and state rulemakings, drafting of legislation, regulations and ordinances, administrative trials and appeals, litigation, negotiation and drafting of contracts, environmental due diligence and audits, and development of corporate risk management and environmental protection policies and manuals. 

She came to Harvard in 2007 to create its first Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. As Clinic Director, she provides her students opportunities for innovative, real-time experience on a variety of complex environmental law policy projects and litigation focusing on sea level rise and other aspects of climate change adaptation, renewable energy, sustainable aquaculture, hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas from shale, carbon capture and sequestration, mountaintop removal mining, and air quality permitting. In addition to designing and supervising clinic projects, Ms. Jacobs also teaches an environmental law seminar designed to expose students to the practical skills they will need and the controversies they will face practicing environmental law.  For two years she taught and developed case studies for the Problem Solving Workshop – an innovative class required of all first-year law students to expose them to lawyering skills.

Areas of Interest

• Environmental Law and Policy
• Administrative Law
• Environmental Law and Policy: Development of Contaminated Properties (Brownfields)
• Environmental Law and Policy: Climate Change
• Environmental Law and Policy: Energy
• Environmental Law and Policy: Due Diligence and Distribution of Environmental Liabilities in Corporate Transfers
• Environmental Law and Policy: Policies and Technologies for the Reduction of Air and Water Pollution
• Environmental Law and Policy: Liability Regimes for Carbon Capture and Sequestration in the U.S. and China
• Environmental Law and Policy: Quantification and Reduction of Environmental Risks
• Environmental Law and Policy: Enactment of Pollution Reduction Laws in Europe (REACH, WEEI, and ROHS)